the waiting game

this is probably the hardest part right now is waiting to know what will come next, since i really have no idea. over the past month i have been meeting with my recruiter (sergent honrado) and exploring different opportunities of what i would be capable of doing. so let me catch yall up.

joining the airforce (or any military branch for that matter) is not as easy as it used to be back in the day. you cant just go in and say you want to join, or say you somehow get in trouble with the law, they wont just let you join to have it erased off your record. luckily i wasnt in the latter, but i did just try to walk in and get my name on the list to get shipped off, but i guess theres alot more to it than that.

1. i had to take a test called the ASVAB, o man, i was so worried about this test, because this test determines your placement, and what exactly you will be qualified for once you get in. the test is composed of 9 sections, 4 of witch determine your core score. so for about a week i studied and studied for this test, i went to the library and even got books for the test. now let me tell you, i havent been to the library in so long, i didnt even have a library card, thats kinda sad, but now i do!, so after studying for this test, the day finally came where i actually had to take it, its pretty much a dumbed down SAT or ACT, but since i havent actually takin a test for a matter of years, i was scared, but much to my surprise after finishing the test i walked away with a 68, now im not exactly sure how the grade it, i know its not a ABC grade but my score opened the doors to the majority of the jobs that they offer in the airforce, so that was the first of my adventures i had to embark on

next....

2. for some odd reason the airforce considered me overweight, actually to the standards of BMI or also known as the body mass index, (witch if i knew who came up with this stupid index i would punch them) i am considered grade 1 obese...really?..whatever tho, so at this time i weighed in around 205 pounds, i have been around that weight for the past 5 years, and now they are telling me i need to be at least 180 to be processed, so i thought there would be no way, losing 20 pounds would take forever, but i was on a journey, i was determined to give it a try, so that is what i did, i started working out really intense, and changed my eating habits, now im not saying i did it the right way, but it worked, and after 2 and 1/2 weeks i lost about 27 pounds, weighing in just the other day at 179,..ya, i was pretty shocked myself, so once i had that settled, they mentioned to me that i actually needed to be 5 pounds less than that, how ridiculous!, i was already dying from the weight i already lost, so i was ready (i guess) to lose some more weight but my recruiter also mentioned that we can go for the body percentage and if i was under a certain percent (18) i wouldnt have to worry about my weight an i could be processed with my body fat. what a genius idea, the BMI scale is definitely wack! and i know i am not obese! so we go for that. they take me down to the nellis airofrce base to get measured and to see what i am....and (drum roll in the background) i was a amazing 14%..so i pretty much was killing myself for no reason, but it still was good, i got in some good shape, and i can keep working out and not die as kill myself..

and....

3. so as of now,im just waiting, there are no jobs in the airforce right now, witch means im not able to go take my physical and sign up for a job until there are some, but my recruiter is saying that hopefully by the end of this month we will be seeing some openings and ill be able to sign, so thats that for now! just waiting for something to open up, and i hope it does soon

mind changes

so the past few days i have been thinking again and again about what i want out of this..yes i know i said i was determined to be a chef and to have my own restaurant and ya ya ya, but now trying to set this all up and to get ready to pursue this course i realized i have 0 dollars to my name, well i knew this before, but it didnt really hit me until i was actually trying to balance my checkbook so to say.

now on my mission i served by a numerous amount of places near military bases, actually 4 to be exact. the first one was moody air force base. this one was in valdosta Georgia, pretty close to the border of Florida. i was serving in Nashville (not Nashville Tennessee, i wish :p ) which was about 20 miles away from valdosta. so in my small town of about 1000, (thats what it seemed like) majority of witch were retired military. this didn't spark my interest in the military at all, even when they talked about it, but at times we would run into a enlisted solider and he would talk it up about how cool it was. one of the coolest jobs someone mentioned when i was in Nashville was something called a PJ jumper, its a job where you jump out of airplanes into water, and then swim to the designated area, dang that seemed so cool

then i was transferred up into an area called warner robins and the base that was here was another air force base. i met so many interesting people in this town, and the majority of them were enlisted in the air force. at this point i had no desire of joining the airforce, or military for that matter. so after serving in this area for six months i left to ridgeland south carolina. now the closest base was about 30 miles away and it was a marine base, witch i really had no interest in. crazy people who get yelled at 24/7, no thank you, so i kinda laid low with talking to people about there military lifestyle and what not

after 5 months there i made my way back up to warner robins and this was the time where i thought something was up. i mean really, i was just there 5 months ago, i didn't think i would ever be back and bam, i was there again. and this time i knew everyone, piratically, and so it was alot easier to ask more questions about how what and why they got started in this career choice, it was very interesting and it enlightened my mind alot to the many career opportunities that the military held, so i started to pursue it and kept asking questions, most of the time to people who weren't interested at first to talk to the missionaries, they would at least answer a question or 2 about their career choice. so after being in warner robins for another 6 months, i ended up in Augusta Georgia where there was one of the biggest military bases in my mission (i honestly didnt think this was a coincidence, me being surrounded by military bases my whole mission) and it was an army base, but combined with all of the branches of military, it was in this area where we would knock on every single door and 9 times out of 10 they would be in the military, and 7 times out of 10 they were a linguist for the military, and man, i thought this was the coolest career ever. i looked alot more into it and asked alot more questions, and i was set, there was no doubt in my mind that i was joining the air force and going into the intelligence field as a linguist.

and then i got home and kinda put that under the rug, and was going to pursue my degree in cooking, because i really do love that, but now I'm determined to start looking more into joining the armed forces and becoming a linguist in the united states air force... wish me luck!

the big bang

funny things happen when palying with fireworks, this video doesnt give it justice to the fact of this but it was still an awesome expierence
at the time i was serving in ridgeland south carolina and it was perfect weather outside, we ended up this night at the home of the sheffields (very well known people in this city) and we (david fowers and i) had a great time celebrating our last 4th of july in the mission...and FYI fireworks wernt exactly on the approved list if you can tell in my final comment i give in the video :p

Hmmmm

Really...???

Summers here already and it feels the year has just started. Knowing that i am one of the ones that can never be content with the weather that is present at the time makes me feel that this is going to be one long summer. But no worries, the weather is never the same in Vegas, you just have to wait 5 minutes.

As y'all know, i recently returned from a fantastic voyage across the southern plains, also known as the bible belt, for a two year mission in my church. Now what better way to learn about something than to indulge yourself in the culture/teachings of it, and that's what i did. Now having those experiences will better prepare me for something i want to be in the future.

While on my mission i had time to really think of who and what i wanted to become in this stage of my life. Before i left i had a deep interest in the how the mind functioned and the knowledge it is capable of obtaining, so i traveled down the road of psychology as every other freshman who doesn't know what he or she is going to do, they pick the most interesting subject and tell themselves they are gonna make a career out of it without actually looking deeper into the matter i.e. salary, lifestyle. Now dont get me wrong here, psychology is definitely an interesting subject, and yes, there is a need for it out in the world today, and yes, people can pick a subject from the syllabus and be totally capable of making that into a career, but i personally didn't have that burning desire anymore, that flame had extinguished and i was left again not knowing what path to choose.

I had always had this passion to cook growing up and to make combinations that often times wouldn't turn out as expected, but i really enjoyed it. And for the past two years i have been cooking for either my companions or other events in my mission witch made me realize (don't know why it took me so long to realize) that my interest is in cooking and having a career in that. So i started preparing the way of how what and where i was going to do this. I narrowed it down to three choices. The first one being, join the navy or coast guard and take classes from them, serve for a matter of 4 years or so and then be on my way. This choice didnt make my parents so pleased, especially my mom. The other 2 choices were either go to UNLV or CSN and get a degree and then apply it in the world. I looked into it and come to find out that the culinary students at UNLV are required to take the classes at csn due to the fact that they dont offer the classes, witch i think is weird, but I'm ok with that since CSN is definitely a good school and it also fits better with my budget for now.

So that's the plan! Enrolled in CSN for the fall and planning on achieving my AA in culinary arts. Then from there on we will see what happens, but i am happy to choose this path in my life at this time and i know it is something i want and that it has always been a hobby.

As of now i am working as a valet/bell boy attendant at the Turnberry Towers. Schedule is filling up but i still have time to be me. The summer will come and go and life will carry on, you just have to keep your mind focused on the goal at hand..